The Dragon Strikes Back

This one is a real oddity, a martial arts western, with a small role for the ever evil Klaus Kinski as the bounty hunter set to go and kill our Hero Joe.

Joe arrives in San Francisco, and instead of meeting the people of the land of the free he meets the land of the racists, and his troubles only just start to begin.

Joe is far to nice for his own good, polite and well-mannered, thats until he needs to defend his life and then his fists of fury unleash some retribution.

A lot of fun.

"The Fight Fists of Shanghai Joe" (1973) sounds like one of those awful genre bending films that repeatedly crop up over the years; however this kung-fu Spaghetti Western is actually pretty decent and has certain similarities with the television series "Kung Fu" with David Carradine. It is directed by Mario Caiano, who made a number of Spaghetti Westerns, and stars Chen Lee as the eponymous Shanghai Joe.

The story is straightforward, almost verging on the simplistic. Joe is a recent immigrant from China to San Francisco, where, in search of work, he heads to Texas. Here he gets on the wrong side of a powerful, racist rancher, Stanley Spencer (Piero Lulli), after he witnesses the massacre of Mexican slave labourers.

This Western tries to say some interesting things about the West, and how Chinese immigrants helped do a lot of the "dirty" jobs that Whites wouldn't do. Sadly, most of this is drowned under its comic book style and some pretty bad kung-fu. Yet it does have some good parts: most of the action scenes come with Peckinpah-esque slow motion and exploding, bloody squids. Some of the violence is pretty strong too, with Lee pulling a bad guy's eyes out on screen. But due to its light-hearted mode, it never feels dark or repellent. In fact, it is all rather comic, lacking the seriousness as "Django Kill, If You Live, Shoot!" (1967) has from its strong violence.

Acting wise, Chen Lee is probably as wooden as his martial arts, but Piero Lulli makes a fine villain and Klaus Kinski's virtually cameo-like role is memorable. The scene where the Mexicans are killed is well-directed, as are a number of other action scenes, sufficient enough to make sure that the Western is at least fast paced.

It isn't a brilliant piece of cinema, but as the Spaghetti Western genre went down the drains, it is refreshingly old fashioned in a way, occasionally recalling the past Golden Era of the late sixties that makes it worth checking out for the Spaghetti Western enthusiast.

Fast action , one-dimensional characters in a Spaghetti Western with gunplay and kung fu . It is a thrilling and violent Italian Western with ordinary ingredients as a courageous , honest antihero searching justice and vengeance , Karate fights , duels , extreme outlaws wishing gold along with regular final confrontation . Concerning a Chinese young traveling to a foreign and far country : USA .The immigrant recently arrived in America , he is named Chin How or Shanghai Joe (Chen Lee) lands in a small Texas town inhabited by bigot enemies . As Chin leads his way by violent means , as if they don't succumb to his demands they normally end up dead . The town folk soon realize that Chin is no usual adventurer and he quickly gains a perilous reputation . When Chin's skills spread to Stanley Spencer (Piero Lulli) , the owner of the states largest cattle ranch, Chin lands a job working for snake-oil Spencer as a fellow cowboy. Friend soon becomes foe when Chin realizes he is working for a cattle smuggler bent on brutalising Mexican farmers and anyone else who stands in his way .The sinister town boss called Spencer has exploited almost everyone Mexican countrymen in the region as our hero Shangai Joe fights to free Mexican slaves from his ruthless master . Chen Lee , the real Brother In Arms of Bruce Lee . He took on the toughest white gang in America. With bare hands World Champions - Chen Lee (Karate) Gordon Mitchell (Pistol) , Pancho del Rio (Knife) .

This Pasta picture contains the ordinary plot about ¨One Man Stands Alone In His Fight For Justice¨ , as a valiant drifter who must move fast to struggle their way through unbearable risks and twisted difficulties . Including Western action , shootouts , violent fights with gore and blood , as well as a little bit of campy and refreshing humor . It's an improbable blending of standard Western , struggles, violence , gory scenes and chop-socky . An enjoyable premise , gunslingers against Karateka, and agreeable Italian cast make this oater well worth the watching . In Shanghai Joe or Il mio nome è Shangai Joe (1973) shows an understanding of both the western and the kung fu genres . Resulting to be perfect example of the late declining years of the spaghetti western . Stars the unknown Chen Lee who's acceptable as Kung Fu expert , testing his unbeatable fighting skills , as he takes on hard-nosed cowboys who don't take kindly to outsiders . As Shangai Joe confronts the greatest criminals in the West played by a top-notch plethora of secondaries of the 60s and 7os , such as : Klaus Kinski as Scalper Jack , Gordon Mitchell as Burying Sam , Robert Hundar as Pedro, The Cannibal , Giacomo Rossi Stuart as Tricky the Gambler . Along with these notorious secondaries, appearing here and there others Italian actors as Carla Mancini , Andrea Aureli , Pietro Torrisi , Lars Bloch , George Wang , Roberto Dell'Acqua and Rick Boyd . And being shot in Almeria, desert of Tabernas , some uncredited Spanish actor showing up , such as : Francisco Sanz, Alfonso de la Vega, Tito Garcia , all of them usual in Spaghetti/Paella subgenre .

It displays a considerable Spaghetti musical score by composer Bruno Nicolai in Ennio Morricone style , in fact Bruno was his main musical disciple . The motion picture was professionally directed by Mario Caiano , and it turned out to be entertaining enough . The picture takes part of a sub-genre in which during the period of the 70s combined Spaghetti Western and art martials with original influence from ¨David Carradine's Kung Fu ¨ series , and mostly focusing on the dumb spaghetti western comedy sub-genre , for example : ¨Karate law in the west ¨(Tonino Ricci), Tiger from River Kwai (Franco Lattanzi) , ¨The Karate , the Colt and the impostor¨ (Anthony M Dawson) . Adding this ¨ My name is Shangai Joe¨ (Mario Caiano) and its sequel , a poor knock-off titled¨Return of Shangai Joe¨ (Bitto Albertini) with Cheen Lie , Klaus Kinski , Karin Field , Carla Mancini , that focus on lame comedy rather than action : furthermore ¨The white, the yellow and the black¨(Sergio Corbucci) that bears remarkable resemblance to deemed to be the best : ¨Red sun¨ by Terence Young with Charles Bronson , Alain Delon , Toshiro Mifune . ¨Il mio nome è Shangai Joe ¨(1973) it's an offbeat , muddle and uneven Western but will appeal to Spaghetti Western fans fans.

In 1882, spunky Chinese man Shanghai Joe hops atop a stagecoach from San Francisco (subtitle says St. Francisco!) to Texas in order to become a cowboy and ends up having to defend himself against a seemingly endless stream of trash-talking rednecks.

Soon Joe runs afoul of a group of nasty human smugglers who send four colorful hired killers to do him in, including Gordon Mitchell, a cannibal, and scalp-collector Klaus Kinski!

Coming out on the heels of the hit television show "Kung Fu", The Fighting Fists Of Shanghai Joe is a lot better than it's Italian knock-off status would suggest.

It's almost all non-stop action with loads of flying fists and flying lead. Blood, a bit of gore, and a great Ennio Morricone sounding score by Bruno Nicolai all fit the comic book nature of the film quite nicely!

In the title role, Chen Lee is really good and should have been in more movies than he was.

Shanghai Joe is just a regular Chinese guy who has moved to America to get a good job and live the dream. Sadly for Joe everyone he comes across is a racist moron who don't want Joe to get anywhere. Sadly for them Joe tends to lose his rag and beat everyone who crosses him into submission.

This film is a lot of fun. A lot of fun. For the first half of the film Joe just goes from job to job being harassed and doling out justice, but then he crosses the wrong guy (a slave trader) and from then on the heat is on, in the form of ugly Gordon Mitchell and uglier Klaus Kinski! Basically just one action set piece after another, this film does not disappoint. Its a nice merging of spaghetti western and martial arts and Mario Caiano isn't daft, as he gives us loads of both in an overtly violent way.

Honestly, for a spaghetti western this one is really high on violence. Wrists are broken and bones protrude, folk are drowned in boiling water, hands are cut off, torsos punctured by fists and Joe even manually removes a guy's eyeball! Entertaining stuff.

I had this in my collection for years and now wish I'd watched it sooner. It's on YouTube if you don't own it.

Also - Joe screams Eeeeeaaaaeeaagh before braining someone. Watch out for that.